Curfew lifted, Srinagar returns to a day's normalcy

Srinagar returned to normalcy for a day as authorities lifted curfew and the separatists asked people to resume routine activities.

Shops and other businesses were open and public transport plied normally as security forces deployed to enforce curfew were withdrawn by the authorities.

Government offices, banks and post offices, however, remained closed owing to the public holiday on account of Gandhi Jayanti, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary.

Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani amended his group’s protest calendar on Saturday and asked people to resume normal life.

Geelani had called for a day’s normalcy on Friday as per the protest calendar, but the authorities imposed strict curfew that day.

"Authorities imposed curfew on a normal day on Friday and refused people the respite they needed. So we have amended our protest calendar. Saturday would now be a normal day in the Valley," said a source close to the hardline leader.

A police official said: "There would be no curfew restrictions in Srinagar on Saturday. Curfew has also been lifted from other towns of the valley as well."

'For once Tom and Jerry agreed to a day's truce in the valley' is how the common Kashmiris perceived it.

"Thank god, the Tom and Jerry fights have ended at least for a day on Saturday," said Naseer Ahmad, bureau chief of a New Delhi based television news channel in Srinagar.

"Otherwise, both the authorities and the separatists have been ensuring that normalcy as perceived by either of them does not materialise so that the rival cannot claim to be in control here," he added.